


Afterburners

by wargoddess



Series: Prompts [6]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Angst, Bad Liquor, Canon Divergence, M/M, Unrequited Lust, Wingman Vega, liquid courage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-08
Updated: 2015-11-08
Packaged: 2018-04-30 15:35:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5169125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wargoddess/pseuds/wargoddess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From a prompt on Tumblr. Everyone knows Shepard's working on Cortez... but all's fair in love and war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Afterburners

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JoAsakura](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoAsakura/gifts).



Everyone knows Shepard’s working on Cortez.  
  
Kaidan’s been quietly miserable about it, because he’s quietly miserable about everything, he’s the Ghost of Regrets Unspoken and he doesn’t rattle chains, just sits somewhere radiating sorrow.  He’s not even sure what he’s sorrowful about, precisely.  Things are strange between him and Shepard, where once he’d thought –  well.  That was before Horizon.  Before the suicide mission.  Before Kaidan shot his own chances in the face.

He can take that.  Not the sort of man to deny his own mistakes.  He’s over it. But then, one day after he’d come aboard, in the mess hall, someone – Chakwas? – had introduced him to Cortez and…  It’s been a long time since Kaidan felt instant attraction to someone.  Longer still since another person’s hand twitched while shaking his own, and another gaze stuttered and stuck to his own for just a moment, peeling away only slowly and with difficulty.  They’ve seen each other only a few times since, passing in the corridors, heading for bunks in the crew quarters after a shift-change.  Nothing but polite greetings exchanged… well, no.  Greetings, but also more of those sticky gazes that make Kaidan think of maple candies and other creamy, sucking sweets –

Jesus.  He keeps coming up with metaphors like that. What the hell.

He goes to Afterlife.  Terrible place for a man prone to migraines; the noise, the lights.  He ignores the dance floor upstairs for that reason, heads to the downstairs bar, orders something so strong that it numbs his tastebuds.  He tries to keep his thoughts on _Did that bartender put a fossil fuel in this glass or is he trying to poison me like that batarian on Omega?_ instead of _Twenty-four hours of shore leave and I’m not, not, not, going to invite him for a sandwich._   Because he’s heard the chatter.  He isn’t stupid.  He knows what kind of men Shepard likes, after all, and he knows when Shepard’s closing in on a kill.

“Major,” said Vega, sidling up beside him and waving something complicated to the bartender which somehow meant _I’ll have what he’s having_.  The bartender slides one over.

“Lieutenant,” Kaidan replies. Vega takes a swallow and nearly chokes. Kaidan smiles without humor.  It isn’t really funny.

Vega recovers and eyes him for a moment. “Didn’t think you were the type, sir.”

The “sir” is wrong.  There wasn’t supposed to be rank in bars, but Vega’s still feeling him out and Kaidan knows it.  He should throw the kid a bone, make it clear he’s not as stick-up-the-ass as he might seem from a distance, but he’s too quietly miserable to bother.  “The type?”

Vega sounds suddenly like he’s speaking very carefully.  “The type to drown your sorrows.  Y’know.” He chin-points toward the glass.

Kaidan’s momentarily irritated. He has to fight the urge to snap back.  Tries for glib instead.  “All’s fair in love and war, Vega.”

Why.  Did he say that. Vega’s on it like a varren on a broken-legged quarian.  “Right.  Sssso.”  He glances away, around, checking – for what, Kaidan doesn’t know.  Shepard, maybe.  Whatever it is, Vega leans on the bar and relaxes.  “Cortez is upstairs.”

He is? Kaidan’s belly tightens. Then he remembers Vega’s watching his face, and sure enough, Kaidan sees the kid’s teeth flash at the corner of his eye.

“So?” Kaidan says. But Vega’s not nearly as stupid as he looks.  Of course; he’s in Shepard’s crew.

“So.”  Vega shrugs and grimaces as he chokes down more of the possible batarian poison.  “Just saying, is all.”

Kaidan puts down his glass and looks at Vega.  Vega plasters an innocent look on his face, as if a Reaper-eating monster of a marine can ever successfully pull off “innocent.”  “Come on,” Kaidan says, annoyed.

Vega gives up the act and sighs. “Okay. I’m just saying… Cortez and I have been buddies for a few years. Since before he was married. I notice things.  When he does this, goes looking for dancing and energy, he’s…”  Vega makes an odd gesture with his hands, opening and closing them and curling his fingers, which completely confuses Kaidan.  “This is a good time, is all I’m saying.”

Kaidan spends a moment interpreting the unspoken sentences. Oh – Is he?  Is he saying?  “I don’t know what you’re saying.”

Vega rolls his eyes.  “He’s _on the hunt_ , man. Needs his Thanix calibrated, his amp upgraded, his relay activated. Come on, you want me to spell it out?”

He might as well have done it already.  And… well, that’s it, then.  Shepard will find Cortez in his prowling.  Shepard’s good with timing.  Kaidan grimaces and slumps back onto the bar, taking two hard swallows of the poison.  “Far be it from me to get between a man and his quarry,” he says, with quiet misery.

“Maybe the man’s got more than one, uh, quarry.”

Kaidan frowns.  Is he saying?  No, he can’t be.  “Well, he’s a lot closer to catching one of ‘em.”

Vega groans in exasperation.  The liquor’s working fast, or he’d never be this borderline-disrespectful otherwise. “For fuck’s sake, Major.  It’s not a race, but if it was – man, you gotta kick in the afterburners. Take a shortcut, cheat, whatever, just don’t give up in the middle of everything. It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.  I’m telling you.”

Kaidan starts to lift the glass again, then blinks, then frowns.  He _is_ saying. But why?  Kaidan’s always thought Vega was Shepard’s man.

Vega watches Kaidan be quietly and miserably confused for a moment, then sighs in frustration and shakes his head.  “Shit. This sucks.  Anybody can see Shepard’s driving to hell in a Mako, jumping off a cliff and laughing his way down.  Cortez doesn’t _need_ that again.”

Oh. Vega is _Cortez’s_ man. Huh.

He’s still ranting at Kaidan. “And I just keep thinking, you… but.  Hell.  Okay, then.” Vega tosses back the last of the glass, pushes away from the bar, and then peers blearily toward a woman in fatigues with a great rack. “Welp. Gonna go wiggle my dick, see if anybody’s biting. You have a nice evening, Major. But, y’know, you change your mind about falling into a bottle for the night, just remember.”  He leans disrespectfully close, and Kaidan thinks the stuff in the glass really was a fossil fuel at the waft of Vega’s combustible breath. _“Afterburners.”_

He saunters off, and the woman with the rack looks him up and down, and Kaidan doesn’t actually notice them saying anything to each other before she reaches out and pats Vega’s crotch, nods in apparent satisfaction, then heads off, curling her finger in an unmistakable _follow me_. Vega grins and obeys.

Against his will Kaidan envisions himself walking up to Cortez. Cortez not saying anything, just smiling at him, peeling away Kaidan’s willpower with that gaze.  Nothing so crude as a hand on the crotch; Cortez is more dignified.  But that gaze would drift down, probably.  Kaidan can make a respectable offer on that accounting; Cortez might see the suggestion of it.  Cortez leaning close. Licking his lips.  _Dance with me_.

The imagining leaves Kaidan’s mouth dry.  He looks at the dreck in his glass and thinks, _Fossil fuels were used in booster engines, once._   

And he’s tired of being miserable.  He leaves a tip on the bar.

Upstairs the music hurts.  The lights make Kaidan wince and look at the floor.  He’s helpless here, vulnerable, useless.  He shouldn’t be here.

But he makes himself look up.  Cortez is at the bar, watching him in a lingering sort of way. A slow smile spreads across the man’s face like he’s just seen the best eye candy in the world. Maple, of course. Creamy and sucking-sweet.  

Beautiful smile, amid the strobe lights. Soft full lips beneath those so-blue eyes. Kaidan’s mouth waters.

He knows he’s in a race he started late, and he’s way behind.  He never meant to compete with Shepard.  He’s content to be the runner-up human Spectre, the uptight one to Shepard’s easy confidence, the flake who makes Shepard’s dancing look like a waltz.  But.

_All’s fair in love and war. Kick in the afterburners._

Okay. He makes himself walk toward Cortez’s welcoming smile.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Shy Men](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6046503) by [wargoddess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wargoddess/pseuds/wargoddess)




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